Crouching Pyrrha, Hidden Yang
by ThirdCoffin
Summary: What if Ruby had been successful partnering up with Yang? What if Pyrrha hadn't been partnered with Jaune? After an accidental collision with Ruby in the hallway, Pyrrha Nikos will soon learn just how formidable her older sister can be. AU where our teams aren't quite what they turned out to be in the canon. There will be slight OOC for quite a few characters.
1. Chapter 1

Pyrrha Nikos was not a fearful person. A champion by the age of seventeen, she had bested grown men at the peak of their athleticism and prowess unflinchingly and without breaking a sweat. She had garnered the title of Invincible Girl and certainly lived up to the expectations of such a moniker. No, it could not be said that Pyrrha was a fearful person.

At this moment and time, however, Pyrrha Nikos was very, very afraid. The reason for this fear was standing in front of her, red cloak billowing lazily. A short girl no older than sixteen wore that red cloak, a confused look on her face and a slow trickle of blood leaking from her nose. Pyrrha had been walking through the crowded hallway, lost in thought, and then the girl had walked into her full force, her diminutive frame doing nothing to stop the well-muscled form of the champion. She could hear the whispers starting even as her mind went blank with panic, her heartbeat speeding up as sweat beaded on her brow.

Pyrrha Nikos had hurt Ruby Rose.

No matter that it was an accident, no matter that Ruby had been the one too preoccupied to watch where she was going and adjust her course accordingly. It was all Pyrrha could do not to start hyperventilating on the spot when Ruby felt at her nose and paled at the sight of blood on her fingers. Silver eyes locked with emerald as Ruby said what might possibly be the only combination of words that could make Pyrrha's blood run cold.

"Oh _shit_. Yang's going to kill you." The girl sounded just as worried as the champion felt. Ruby knew how unfair Yang could be to people when she was involved, and how mercilessly she dealt out what Yang deemed "fitting punishment" to those she felt had slighted her younger sister.

Yang Xiao Long. The blonde brawler herself, the raging dragon, the blazing boxer of Beacon. Ruby Rose's older sister, and one of Beacon Academy's top students when it came to combat. Currently Beacon's top student when it came to one on one combat, and Pyrrha's constant rival in that regard. Both of them were pretty evenly matched, each of them fighting for that top spot until the other knocked them down to number two, only for the cycle to repeat itself.

And that's before Yang activated her semblance in a true fit of rage. That was Yang having _fun_.

"Oh, _MERDE!_ " Pyrrha shouted, slipping into her native Mistralian tongue as she continued to release a stream of expletives. Unthinkingly, she scooped up the younger brunette and sprinted to an abandoned classroom, carrying her wedding style the entire way. Ruby couldn't help but agree with the sentiment, knowing full well the implications of what had just transpired and what would happen once Yang caught wind of it.

Perhaps things would be different if the girls had been closer, had been friends, but things did not turn out as such. Ruby had stumbled into her sister in the Emerald Forest, and Pyrrha had come across a struggling Weiss Schnee. Other than combat exercises and classes, teams JRNY (Pronounced Journey, consisting of **J** aune, **R** uby, **N** ora, and **Y** ang, with Jaune leading the team.) and BRNS (Pronounced Bronze, consisting of Blake **B** elladonna, Lie **R** en, Pyrrha **N** ikos, and Weiss **S** chnee, with Blake being their leader.) didn't usually see much of each other, with the exception of the childhood sweethearts Ren and Nora. As it was, Yang and Weiss had a bitter rivalry with one another, making the competitiveness between Pyrrha and the blonde seem like a childhood friendship. Maybe if things had gone a little differently, and Pyrrha had been a little closer to the crimsonette, she wouldn't have to worry about bumping into the smaller girl.

If Yang hadn't partnered up with her sister, maybe she wouldn't have become the raging dragon of Beacon, jealously and vehemently guarding her precious charge at all times. Perhaps if she had been given the chance to branch out from her role as her sister's watchful protector, she wouldn't feel the need to be excessively violent when it came to her defense.

Alas, things were not as such. Pyrrha was, at best, only a few short hours away from being challenged by a fiery-haired demoness who wouldn't take no for an answer. Her sister's blood, however small the amount or minor the wound, had been spilled. And she would expect Pyrrha to pay in kind.

"Putain, est-ce que je viens de te kidnapper?" Pyrrha choked out, realizing that she had not only bumped into Ruby in the hallway and subsequently given her a nosebleed, she had grabbed the girl and sprinted off into the distance. Ruby, for her part, was thoroughly confused, not being able to speak a lick of Mistralian. Her eyebrow arched questioningly as she looked at the taller girl.

"Pardon, sorry. I asked if I just accidentally kidnapped you." Ruby nodded thoughtfully at the translation, agreeing after a short moment that Pyrrha's actions may be construed as such.

"I'll talk to Yang, don't worry. I'll do my best to calm her down, and hopefully she'll only want to fight you a little bit afterwards!" The brunette cheerfully explained, her silver eyes dancing as she formulated a plan to appease her berserker of a sister.

"That sounds _grand._ " Pyrrha groaned pitifully, not looking forward to what the day had in store for her. Ruby's smile faltered only slightly as she realized that maybe she wasn't as in control of the situation as she thought.

The sight of Ruby's smile wilting did nothing to ease the dread that burrowed itself deep in her chest. She threw her hands into the air and let loose another tirade of Mistralian profanities, much to the amusement of Ruby. The brunette couldn't help but to giggle, a short tinkling sound that reminded Pyrrha of the chirping of small birds.

That giggle did sinfully inappropriate things to Pyrrha's heart. She cut her sentence short and looked, really looked at the younger girl that had perched herself on one of the empty desks in the room, her short legs dangling comically as she kicked them to and fro. The cute button nose, the small smattering of freckles across her pale skin, those eyes of molten silver that drew her gaze in so easily. Pyrrha's mouth went dry when she realized that she was crushing on the crimsonette.

Pyrrha Nikos had a crush on Ruby Rose. If hurting Ruby wasn't a death sentence, trying to date her most assuredly was. Yang's protective rage knew no limits.

Ruby turned her attention to Pyrrha after her gaze wandered around the room, only to find the red headed champion staring at her. A small , amused smile crept its way onto Pyrrha's face unbidden at the confused look from the younger girl. It disappeared completely when the door to the classroom exploded off of its hinges and buried itself into the wall opposite, flames dancing as the thick oak smoldered. Yang stomped into the room, red eyes filled with murder, and grabbed the front of Pyrrha's uniform. Heat poured off of the brawler in waves, courtesy of the aura that pulsed around her.

"You. Me. Three o'clock. Training room." She growled, yanking Pyrrha close to her. "If you don't show, I'll be _angry_." With that, she grabbed an apologetic-looking Ruby by the wrist and left the room, fussing over her sister's "injury".

Pyrrha stared at the still-flaming door that jutted out of the wall like a poorly placed tombstone. She thought of the sheer power that it would have taken to launch the door that fast, that hard. She sighed heavily, unable to see a way out of her predicament.

It was going to be a very interesting day.

…

After calming herself down, Pyrrha made her way to the lunch room to join her team. She spotted Ren and Weiss conversing while Blake buried her head in a book, ears twitching as she tried to ignore the buzz of students around her. The faunus girl had quickly revealed herself to her team, fully believing that if she were to lead them, there could be no secrets between them all. Weiss had temporarily butted heads with the BRNS team leader, but after a heated discussion in their dorm while Pyrrha stood near the door to ensure neither party would bolt, their differences were quickly put aside as childish and ignorant on both sides.

Pyrrha sat down next to her teammates and they all gave her worried glances, unsure of how to broach the subject that she knew concerned them to no end. She was about to bring the subject up herself when a raucous voice startled the entire group.

"Yang is _pissed_!" Came the laughter filled cry from Nora, the ginger-haired girl smiling in her unhinged way as she plopped down next to Ren. "She makes it sound like you sucker punched her sister in cold blood or somethin'!"

" _She_ walked into _me_!" Pyrrha's voice consisted of equal parts fear and outrage. What right did the Xiao Long girl have to threaten her? Why should she be angry over an accident? Pyrrha was never truly in the mindset of being the Invincible Girl when she wasn't in her combat armor, but she sure as hell would defend her position.

"Everyone knows how clumsy Little Red is, Nora." Blake spoke up, her ears twitching as she used her nickname for the crimsonette. Blake was a good friend of Ruby's, partially because the girl was so adamant about making a faunus feel welcomed and partially because of how downright likable the teen was. "And everyone also knows how nice you are, Pyrrha, despite how formidable you are in combat."

"The fact of the matter is, Pyr, that we all know that Ruby wasn't paying attention and walked right into ya." Nora told her friend in a soothing tone. "But, Yang doesn't really care about that. Right now, she's in mama bear mode and she's convinced you hurt her cub."

"She wants me to fight her after classes end, in the training room. I will _not_ be holding back if it comes to that. I just wish she was more understanding, especially when it comes to her younger sister."

"Is it a possibility for you not to show up? Wait until she has calmed down?" Ren interjected, ever the voice of reason.

"Pfft. Yang'd be even more mad and would probably fight Pyrrha on the spot the next time she saw her if she avoided the fight." Nora scoffed. "If she wants a specific time and place, it's for a reason. She's giving you a chance to prepare yourself, Pyr. She respects you, in her own messed up way."

"That's _grand_ , Nora. I get a few hours' notice before my attempted murder. How thoughtful of the woman." Pyrrha couldn't keep the edge out of her voice as she snapped at her friend.

"She'll probably stop short of actually trying to kill you. Not even Cardin got her that angry, and he messed with her hair!" On that note, Nora stood and began to drag Ren away into the crowd of students. "I'm gonna start the bettin' pool!"

Pyrrha's gaze followed her ginger-haired friend until she was out of side, only to be drawn to a thick mane of blonde hair sitting across the room. Emerald eyes met lilac for the briefest of moments, and Yang nodded almost imperceptibly at the amazon. Pyrrha's gaze narrowed, and she nodded back.

If Yang wanted a fight, she was going to get it. And she was going to lose.

 **AN: Hello all. I know I said I would be posting the next chapter of my Loud House fic, and by no means am I giving up on that story. I will be finishing it as soon as I can, and I've already finished the outline for it. Unfortunately, I haven't been in the right mindset to write my usually fluff-filled stories, and took to writing this instead.**

 **I've been obsessed with RWBY as of late, having binge-watched all 5 volumes, and I've always wondered what would have happened if our girls didn't have the opportunities to grow that they were offered in the canon storyline. So, we have part one of a multi-part lil fic that I've been stewing on for a little bit. Pyrruby is a definite possibility (no shit, Third) and it remains to be seen if it's something I'll tack on. This is more likely than not going to be a short fic, less than 10 chapters if it pans out how I plan.**

 **Mistralian being french is something that I have taken from Dongyrn's many fics involving the Invincible Girl, simply because I absolutely love that idea. If you see this or hear about this Dongyrn and you wish me to change it or remove it from my fic, I gladly will. If you have time, check out their page and check out all of their amazing fics!**

 **On to the next thing: I will be on a two/three month hiatus very soon, as I am flying out to boot camp this weekend. I apologize to my Linka fans as you will unfortunately have to wait for the next chapter in that series, as much as it pains me to say.**

 **My last bullet point I swear: I am currently working on a more long-term RWBY fic that is set after the events of volume 5 and will more than likely diverge heavily from any canon events that will occur once volume 6 premiers. Like this story, there's gonna be some OOC tweaks because it's not the same world we know and love. That story, however, won't be getting posted until I've neared completion of the entire fic.**

 **Please feel free to review and fave/follow if you feel the need. I am always open to PMs and suggestions, though if you make a suggestion or review I do recommend you make an account so I can reply to you directly!**

 **I will see you all in a few months! May that time be as eventful for you as it will be for me, just hopefully not as physically taxing lol.**


	2. Chapter 2

Yang Xiao Long was not an angry person. Hotheaded, yes. Stubborn, snarky, arrogant in the face of both danger and authority, yes. Despite these character traits, years of martial arts training at the hands of her father, coupled with the fact that her semblance fed off of her aura in no small way, had taught her the merits of keeping a cool head. In her opinion, she wasn't an angry person at all.

At this moment and time, however, Yang Xiao Long was very, very angry. And the reason for that anger was staring at her, slack-jawed, as she stepped through the ruined threshold of what used to be a classroom doorway. A red-headed beauty with bronzed skin and shimmering emerald eyes, the Invincible Girl stood a full four inches taller than Yang, but the shorter girl positively towered over the amazon as she grabbed the front of her uniform.

Pyrrha Nikos had hurt Ruby Rose. Yang could feel the flames of her semblance weaving their way into her golden tresses as she glanced at her sister's bloodied face, and her blood sang. Crimson eyes snapped back to the champion and bored into the taller girl's gaze.

"You. Me. Three o'clock. Training room." She managed to snarl, her right hand shaking with the effort of not throwing a right cross then and there. Angrily, she twisted her fist into the uniform still clenched in her left hand and yanked Pyrrha down to her height. "If you don't show, I'll be _angry_."

Message delivered, Yang made sure to firmly but gently grab hold of Ruby's wrist and stomp out the door, her eyes changing back to their usual lilac hue only after she had escorted her sister back to the dorm room they shared.

"That was a little much, Yang." Ruby pouted indignantly as she finally tore free of her sister's grasp. She stomped her foot and crossed her arms, too upset over her sister's actions to worry about acting like a child. "I wasn't even hurt!"

Yang sighed and snaked an arm around her younger sister, pulling her close. "Ru, you're bleeding."

Ruby _hmmph_ 'd and tried to struggle out of Yang's one-armed hug, feet kicking and arms flailing as she thrashed. After a few moments of futile struggling, she sagged and heaved a great sigh. Watery silver orbs found their way to Yang's gaze and held her there. If one thing could melt Yang's stubborn heart, it was her sister.

"Why did you have to embarrass me like that?" Ruby's voice shook slightly as Yang realized she was struggling not to cry. "She was being really cool about it, even if I couldn't understand what she was saying, and she seemed really sorry."

"She hurt you, Ruby!" Yang couldn't put any real heat into her words, not with those sorrowful pools of silver gazing balefully at her. As it was, she let the crimsonette escape from the one sided hug, and the younger girl wrapped her own arms around herself protectively.

" _I_ walked into _her_ , Yang. It was my fault, and I should be allowed to handle my own mistakes." A few tears had begun to make their way down Ruby's cheeks, and she brushed them away hurriedly with a sleeve. "You made me look like a baby in front of _Pyrrha Nikos_ , to boot!"

"I just worry about you, sis. It's my job to protect you." Yang's voice was firm on this matter. After all, she was the person who took care of Ruby. As far as she was concerned, Ruby's safety would always be a priority of hers.

"Is it your job to ruin any chance of me making friends, too, Yang?" Ruby's voice broke and the waterworks really began, fat teardrops creating new grooves in the dried tracks on her face. "B-because aside from our teammates, everyone's too afraid of you to even _talk_ to me!"

Yang was taken aback at the sudden anger radiating off of the crimsonette, unused to _anyone_ speaking to her like that, much less her sweet baby sister. "Rubbles, you have plenty of friends. What about Blake?"

"Blake's the _only_ real friend I have outside of our team. Anyone else that I talk to is only nice to me so that you don't kick their ass!" Ruby's anger was tapering off now, the young girl unable to keep the feeling alive in her chest for very long. "Do you know how lonely I get, Yang? Everyone else who goes to this school is at least two years older than me, and that's difficult enough to deal with without you harassing anybody who speaks to me."

"Ruby, I-"

"Just forget about it, Yang." Ruby sighed dejectedly, shoulders slumping. The younger girl flopped onto her bed dejectedly, burying her face in her pillow. Her next words were muffled, but still painfully clear to the blonde. "Leave me alone. Everybody else does."

...

Ruby could hear the door close behind her sister as she left the room. Peaking over the pillow she had hidden her face in, she made sure that Yang had actually left before sitting up and sighing to herself, rubbing at her aching eyes.

Ruby had been so excited when the day had started. She was going to ask Pyrrha Nikos, _the_ Pyrrha Nikos, to help her with her combat training. Yang would have been the obvious person to ask, but Ruby couldn't learn anything from someone who used a combat style that was essentially plowing through every threat with brute force. She just didn't have the aura reserves or the build for it.

Pyrrha, however, used a combination of deadly skill and carefully applied force to defeat her foes. Something that Ruby could greatly benefit from, wielding the weapon that she did. And so she had set out to find the crimson-haired warrior, and was lucky enough to stumble upon her in the hallway!

Well, stumble _into_ , at least. She had to admit, her nose was a little sore from where she had faceplanted into Pyrrha's muscled abdomen, but she deserved no less for flitting through the hallways like a distracted hummingbird. And then Pyrrha had picked her up, made her feel so tiny in her arms. She had had to look everywhere but the amazon once they were in the classroom, because the older girl was so unbelievably pretty that Ruby wouldn't have been able to tear her eyes away from her.

On top of that, hearing Pyrrha speak in Mistralian had done strange things to her chest. It had made her feel all weird where her heart was, all light and puffy, and she felt like she couldn't listen to that voice nearly enough. After a few moments staring off into space and thinking about the redhead, Ruby came to a realization and cursed in a most decidedly un-Ruby like fashion.

If Yang was mad _now_ , she was going to be absolutely livid when she found out Ruby had a crush on Pyrrha Nikos.

...

Unsure of what to say and hurt by the sudden turn of events, Yang made her way to the cafeteria. At least there she could vent her frustrations until she had an opportunity to really let loose on the person she was mad at. Making her way through the halls, she began to get worked up again just thinking about the things she had been told.

Pyrrha Nikos had walked straight into Ruby, practically bulldozed straight through the girl without a second thought. She hadn't even said sorry! And then after she had bloodied Yang's sister up, she had just ran off with her like some kind of old-timey kidnapper! What right did the Nikos girl have to hurt Yang's sister? So what if she was a famous champion, so what if her face was on a cereal box?

Yang didn't believe that it was an accident at all. She had fought Pyrrha before, and nothing that girl did in combat was ever an accident. Every move was either carefully planned or skillfully improvised in a flashy display of her combat prowess. Somebody who was that meticulous didn't just zone out in the hallways and happen to nearly break the nose of her only competition when it came to one on one combat.

Arriving in the cafeteria, Yang quickly spied Nora's shock of orange hair next to her fellow blonde, Jaune. Muscling her way through the crowd of people as much as she had to, which wasn't much considering she still radiated the anger she had built up on the way over, she practically threw herself into the seat across from her two teammates. The two looked at Yang and had opposite reactions to her mood.

"Who's the dead man walkin'?" Nora asked animatedly, having heard rumors that someone had hurt Ruby in the halls. Jaune, on the other hand, seemed apprehensive at having to try and minimize any collateral damage Yang would cause in pursuing her new vendetta.

"No one would ever intentionally do anything to Ruby, you know that Yang." Jaune tried to appeal to the blonde warrior.

" _Everything_ Pyrrha Nikos does is intentional, Jaune." Yang shot back at him, earning a 'oo' from Nora.

"Pyrrha? I didn't hear _that_ juicy tidbit in the halls!" Nora exclaimed, practically shaking in her seat.

"Oh yeah. She got Ruby in the nose pretty good, made her bleed and everything." Yang could feel her semblance chomping at the bit as she spoke, begging to be unleashed. "I told her to meet me at the training grounds after classes. I'm gonna knock her block off."

"I've gotta tell Ren! This is gonna be so _cool_!" Nora shot off like a bullet, intent on hunting down her boyfriend, knowing Pyrrha would be close by the gentle martial artist.

"I really don't think Pyrrha of all people would-" Jaune began hesitantly.

"Really, Arc? Do you honestly think one of the most talented fighters in this whole academy would let her concentration slip and just _happen_ to nearly break my sister's nose?" Yang's eyes flashed a dangerous shade of red before reverting back to their usual hue. "No. It wasn't an accident. It was a calculated move to try and throw me off my game."

"I... I guess not. I don't know, Yang, I don't really know her well enough to say." Jaune conceded defeat, as was usual with his arguments with the blonde girl. He didn't deal well with confrontation, and Yang was nothing but a walking confrontation. She was more than happy to help him with combat training, but he wished someone was there to help him with his lack of confidence too. "Just... Could you try and talk to her or something? Try diplomacy for once before you try and put her through a wall?"

Yang winced as she remembered her incident the previous week with Cardin Winchester, where she had thrown him so hard he had destroyed one of the stone walls surrounding one of the campus' many gardens. In her defense, he _had_ been picking on Ruby, taunting the girl for being friends with a faunus.

"I'll think about it." It was Yang's turn to concede now. She knew how difficult it was for Jaune to confront her, to confront anybody for that matter, and she did her best to make it easy on him when he did. "That's all I can promise, though. She hurt my Rubbles, that's not something I'll forgive easily."

When Jaune nodded and mumbled something about that having to be good enough, Yang was already scanning the room for any sign of the redhead she had threatened less than an hour prior. She saw Nora dragging Ren to a crowd of people, and knew that Ren would be the neutral officiator for the betting pool Nora was about to create. Following that line of sight, she locked eyes with the Mistralian amazon and gave her a slight nod, giving her fellow warrior the respect she deserved. She could see the determination in those green eyes, and knew that it was not Pyrrha Nikos staring back at her but the Invincible Girl.

A short nod was the response directed at her. Pyrrha would be prepared.

Good. Yang wanted a fight, and she was going to get one. And she was going to win.

 **AN: Here it is, folks. This is quite possibly the last chapter you're going to see from me for the better part of three months. I will continue to work on this fic as much as I can in the interim, but I am not allowed access to electronics during basic training. Once I am back, though, I plan on churning out as much as I can for this wonderful community!**

 **I am going to explain a little bit because I have gotten one or two PMs asking about some OOC actions. Ruby is far more likely to curse or swear, not excessively mind you, because she is spending far more time with Yang than she would have in the show, them being partners and all. And we all know Yang speaks without thinking, profanity included in my personal headcanon. Blake isn't necessarily more open about her faunus heritage so much that she knows a leader of a team shouldn't be hiding so huge a secret from her team. This, coupled with the level-headed Pyrrha being thrown into the mix, has the side effect of working through issues a lot faster than when she was on team RWBY.**

 **As always, feel free to favorite, review, follow, whatever you want to do! Just have fun doing it. I'm going to shamelessly direct you to Dongryn yet again, at the small chance that some of you haven't read their stuff. Fluff is abound, and that's just the kind of sappy story I like!**


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